Tax & Trade Blog

Lawyer-client relationships enjoy what is commonly referred to as solicitor-client privilege – or lawyer-client privilege. Regrettably (and surprisingly to some), accountants do not have this protection!

As the recent Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) decision in Zeifmans LLP has confirmed, where pushed for client information by the CRA, accounting firms – but not law firms – are required to disclose client information, including work done in tax situations!

British Columbia’s (“BC’s”) new PST rules regarding online marketplaces have been in effect for about three months now. First announced in the 2022 provincial budget, the provincial government claims the changes will close tax loopholes and “better adapt BC’s consumption taxes to the rapid expansion of e-commerce during the pandemic.” It is expected to result in an additional 100 million of revenue for the province in each of the next two years.

But where is all that new revenue really coming from?

On September 1, 2022, the Select Luxury Items Tax Act (“SLITA”) officially came into effect. Vendors and importers of subject goods should be registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”), paying tax, and keeping track of the information they will need to file their first returns.

While we have written about the luxury tax previously, this blog provides further practical details on the implementation of the luxury tax in light of the CRA’s recently-released administrative guidance.

Tax practitioners are unfortunately well-aware of the sometimes years-long delays when requesting rulings and relief from CRA. What is less understood is the interplay between often overlapping taxpayer relief mechanisms when statutory deadlines are close to expiry, but the desired relief remains ungranted.

The recent Federal Court decision in Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FC 393  (CanLII) dealt with this issue, and provides a cautionary tale that registrants should consider filing protective ETA 261  rebate claims within the proper legislative timelines while they otherwise wait for relief, otherwise they may find themselves out of time and with no further options.

As we have blogged about several times in the past, homebuilders are frequently in the gunsights of CRA in hopes of capturing potentially unremitted GST/HST on sales made the course of their commercial activity.

A less-explored issue is how CRA sometimes casts too wide a net, and mistakenly assesses unlucky individuals who are not builders, but whose facts may suggest otherwise. The recent case in Wang v. The Queen, 2021 TCC 86 (CanLII) deals with this issue and serves as a cautionary tale for individuals in the unfortunate position of staring down a CRA assessment on the unplanned sale of their new home.